January 31, 2012

Research shows that a country's level of income inequality is linked to bad outcomes. Infant mortality, drug use, prison population, mental illness, high school drop outs, obesity, levels of distrust and homicide rates all increase proportionately to the level of income inequality.

[This is] a clear warning for those who might want to place low public expenditure and taxation at the top of their priorities. If you fail to avoid high inequality, you will need more prison and more police. You will have to deal with higher rates of mental illness, drug abuse and every other kind of problems. If keeping taxes and benefits down leads to wider income differences, the need to deal with ensuing social ills may force you to raise public expenditure to cope.

January 16, 2012

"...activists with the Rainforest Action Network and The New Bottom Line affixed non-adhesive protest stickers to some 85 BoA ATMs throughout San Francisco. The stickers replaced the traditional menu items with 'a list of everything BoA customers’ money is being used for, including investment in coal-fired power plants, foreclosure on Americans’ homes, bankrolling of climate change, and paying for fat executive bonuses.'”

December 25, 2011

“This isn’t just another political debate,” Obama said. “This is the defining issue of our time. This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class.

“At stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home and secure their retirement.”

“Some billionaires have a tax rate as low as 1 percent. One percent. This is the height of unfairness.

“It is wrong for Warren Buffett’s secretary to pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett. And he agrees with me.”

December 15, 2011

Chief executive pay has roared back after two years of stagnation and decline. America's top bosses enjoyed pay hikes of between 27 and 40% last year, according to the largest survey of US CEO pay. The dramatic bounceback comes as the latest government figures show wages for the majority of Americans are failing to keep up with inflation.

...the top 10 earners took home more than $770m between them in 2010. As stock prices began to recover last year, the increase in CEO pay outstripped the rise in share value...

For S&P 500 CEOs...[pay] increased by a median of 36.47%. Total pay at midcap companies, which are slightly smaller than the top firms, rose 40.2%.

"Wages for everybody else have either been in decline or stagnated in this period, and that's for those who are in work,"

Image from OpEdNews, where we learn that high CEO pay correlates with lower company performance.

Note that as of now there don't appear to be any US media outlets reporting this story.